Otterton

After a sprint class I quickly headed to the start of todays historical walk.  It was based in Otterton a village which has had a very full history with evidence of settlements from Saxon times, the tower of the church is believed to be Saxon.  We walked up to Anchoring Hill looking out to the village church and surrounding area.  In the past the river Otter was navigable past Otterton and ships berthed here until the river slowly silted up from the late 1400's.  Its very hard to imagine that now.  It was pointed out that the village was also unusual in that a large number of farms were located here with the farmers owning different fields in the area rather than one farm with its surrounding fields.  It was thought this may be one reason why there are so many footpaths in the area.  

We walked through the village past several farm buildings with associated barns, stables and outbuildings all of which have been converted into residential buildings.  Todays blip shows Anchoring Farm with its external chimney - a feature of several buildings here.  A Rolle house can just be seen in the distance with flint stones decorating the walls.  The village green was in the past the area where ships would have moored and it has a Edward VIIth post box there which is still in use today.  Its a fascinating village and was an enjoyable walk with so many historical facts given out I hope I can remember some of them.